1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to barrel plating systems, in general, and to automated barrel plating systems which require little or no manual labor.
2. Prior Art
There are many known plating systems currently in existence. Some of these systems are arranged in custom engineered, modular units. However, for the most part these known systems do not have the capability of automatically transferring material from one plating tank to an adjacent plating or processing tank. Typically, the known systems use a polypropylene tank which is substantially rectangular in configuration and placed in a unit which is smilar to a free standing household washing or drying machine. In each of these instances, it is generally required that the operator insert the material to be plated into the tank, add the solution and the plating material, and set the automatic controls for the appropriate plating action. However, when the next process step is to be achieved, the plated material must be removed from the first processing tank and physically transported to another processing tank for further operation. This process is both time consuming and expensive. In addition, during this time errors may creep into the processing arrangement due to the lack of automatic control. In addition, other errors or error conditions can be encountered during the manual transfer of materials from one processing tank to the other.
Consequently, the known systems suffer from various problems and shortcomings. It is highly desirable to overcome these shortcomings in order to make any plating operation more cost effective and more accurate.